Things We Read and Loved: Get Growing

We’ve been talking and thinking a lot about “growth” at RL this month — whether it’s personal or professional. Too often, we don’t get to prioritize growth in our hectic day-to-day lives. In the spirit of growth month at RL, we set aside some time to read stories that help us understand others’ growth journeys and inspired us to think about how we as individuals can grow, too.

If you’re not familiar with Amanda Lindhout, once you hear about her personal journey, it’s not something you’ll ever forget. We were lucky enough to have Amanda as one of our keynote speakers at RL Palooza 2017, where she shared her powerful story of finding compassion and forgiveness after being kidnapped for 15 months in Somalia. This is an in-depth interview where Amanda answers some tough questions and explains how she came to develop the Global Enrichment Foundation. We also highly recommended that you check out her book, A House in the Sky.

Technology has the capacity to do some pretty incredible things, and more and more has become a conduit for personal and professional growth. In this article, Daniel and Jason Freeman explore how virtual reality (VR) could be leveraged to provide timely care for people struggling with mental health issues, by getting patients out of the consulting word and simulating the real one.

Sometimes even we need a break from reading. Instead, here's a powerful TED Talk with Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor. At it’s heart, her journey is about adaptation — after having a stroke, Bolte-Taylor learned to use the other side of her brain.

Depression and suicide are increasingly common in physicians. In this recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, one doctor chronicles his journey with depression and addiction and shares what helped him along the road to recovery.

Grief is something we encounter too often in healthcare. With her daughter in a coma and battling pneumonia in the hospital, Joan Didion’s reality didn’t seem like it could get harder. But when her husband dies unexpectedly from a heart attack after 40 years of marriage, she is challenges even further. In this book, Didion reflects on grief, how we are treated when we are grieving and the magical thinking that can help get us through it.